HOCKEY Men's round-up:Glenanne last won it in 2001, when they beat YMCA. Annadale have never won it. For an Ulster side that has dominated the provincial competitions so comprehensibly up North for the past five years, the Irish Senior Cup has become something of a holy grail.
As each year goes by and the Belfast team fails to win it, it becomes increasingly more important. They should talk to Avoca - who finally won it in 1996 - about how that feels.
But Annadale know Glenanne's fire burns just as hotly. With many of the same players who won it six years ago, the Tallaght-based side are in good shape to face down their Ulster rivals on Sunday in Belfield.
But one names jump out from each side: Glenanne's Stephen Butler, Ireland's set-piece specialist, and Annadale's top goal scorer and short-corner ace, Ian Hamilton. Unlike Butler, Hamilton may not be a regular on Dave Passmore's Irish side, but his conversions at set-pieces have been outstanding this year.
While it is easy to say short corners will be huge in deciding the final - because they often are - on Sunday that aspect of the game will be even more emphatic. With two players so sharp and dangerous in that area, discipline is going to be an issue and any sloppy tackling at the goal end of the halves from both sides is likely to be punished.
Hamilton hit his 50th league goal of the season in Annadale's last home match against Banbridge in Lough Moss last weekend, so he goes into the game in particularly high spirits. Annadale, incidentally, won the match having been beaten by Banbridge three times this season.
Glenanne, though, are encouraged to have Butler, who might have been sidelined for the match had a disciplinary hearing gone against him in recent weeks. But the Dubliners are also nothing if not a strong, unified team and elevating Butler above the rest is somewhat unfair.
Glenanne have soldiered on without their international players for many games this season and have come through it all in rude health, as their dominant position at the top of the Leinster Senior league indicates. John Goulding, the two Shaws, Graham and Gary, Joe Brennan, Alan Browne and Paul Fitzpatrick form a formidable package, and, as everyone knows, they are no shrinking violets in a battle. Combined with the wisdom of coach Noel Keogh and Nazir Munir, Annadale should be worried.
But they too have class, with internationals Iain Lewers and Stephen Redpath among their ranks. It is a hard match to call, but if Glenanne's discipline stays high and the corner count against them stays low, they have a good chance of another senior cup.
WEEKEND FIXTURES: Saturday- Leinster Senior League - Division One: Bray v Railway Union 3.30, Bray; Corinthians v Fingal 1.0, Whitechurch Park; TRR v Monkstown 1.0, Grange Road. Division Two: Avoca v Clontarf 1.45, Newpark; Kilkenny v Naas 1.0, Kilkenny College; Navan v Suttonians, 12.45 Navan; Skerries v UCD 1.0, Skerries. Munster Senior League - Division One - Church of Ireland A v Catholic Institute 2.30, Garryduff Sunday:Irish Senior Cup Final: Glenanne (Dublin) v Annadale (Belfast), Belfield, 2.15.
